Saturday’s Wheeler Street Block Party left police officers bruised, hundreds of partygoers teary-eyed from pepper spray and resulted in dozens of arrests.

In the wake of the chaos, city officials are commending law enforcement for their work, while droves of students are questioning the lengths police went to in restoring order.

According to Macomb Police Chief Curt Barker, an estimated 3,000 individuals attended the event, which began to turn ugly around 6 p.m. Saturday.

It started with a small fire on the corner of Wheeler and Albert streets. Then a stop sign was dug up and thrown into the flames to loud, drunken cheers.

It was about that time, Barker says, that local officers decided the street party was over.

Barker said city officers, along with McDonough County Sheriff’s deputies, WIU officers and state police began walking Wheeler?Street, asking the hoards of partygoers to get out of the street.

Barker said EMS paramedics were treating multiple victims of alcohol poisoning and setting up makeshift medical stations at the Wheeler and Albert intersection, as well as Wheeler and Charles streets.

“As they were doing that, they began receiving all kinds of beer bottles being thrown at them and they were overwhelmed,” Barker said. “That’s when they requested to bring in the mobile field force, which we had back in reserve.”

The mobile field force is a law enforcement team made up of officers from departments throughout Illinois, specially armed and trained to deal with civil disorder and crowd control.

As multiple videos that have been posted to www.youtube.com show, the mobile field force swept Wheeler Street in a single file line, pushing people from the streets, arresting some and pepper spraying others who were defiant.

“We didn’t want to use the mobile field force,” Barker said. “That was a last resort. When we decided that we were going to break the party up, we tried to do it with our local officers.”

Barker said police did everything they could to allow the party to continue, but when police attempted to keep peace at locations causing problems, they were met with resistance.

“This is two years in a row where people have been throwing beer bottles and individuals are highly intoxicated,” Barker said. “This year, there were really a lot of beer bottles being thrown...The crowd was getting extremely aggressive. The more alcohol they consumed, the more aggressive they got.”

He added that several police officers were hit with bottles and bruised, but there were no serious injuries.

“I was very proud of my officers with the amount of restraint that they showed,” Barker said. “A lot of times in situations like this, the adrenaline gets pumping and people end up going a little too far. Every video that I’ve watched, when our officers made an arrest, they used very good restraint.”

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Macomb Mayor Mike Inman said the Macomb Police Department should be commended for its work Saturday.

“Given the history of this event, I think it was very prudent that Chief Barker and his staff worked collaboratively with the university in trying to anticipate something like this occurring,” Inman said. “They took great measures to lay out the possible ramifications.”

At the end of the day, 106 charges ranging from aggravated battery to urinating in public were handed out.

Inman said the city began preparing for the non-sanctioned event about a month ago.

“Our goal was met,” Inman said. “Our goal was to keep people safe and to not make this any more of a hazardous situation than what was necessary. There wasn’t anyone that received any injuries that required any extensive medical attention and I think that’s a win. The potential for volatility was there. On the scale of things, it was a well-managed event and dealt with effectively.”

Another point of view

Western Illinois University political science major Jason Kaough does not believe that law enforcement should be commended for their actions on Saturday.

Kaough said he and his friends did everything officers told them to do, but they were still pepper sprayed by city police.

He was one of dozens of partygoers shooting video of Saturday’s events. Now posted on Youtube, Kaough’s video does not show a drunken rowdy group threatening officers.

“We got everybody out of the street, off our lawn and on to our porch,” Kaough said. “After that, I have video that shows cops coming in and just pepper spraying the students on my porch. She just sprayed all over our porch.”

The video is shot from a porch on Wheeler Street. The mobile field force had just begun pushing people the opposite way, and there were only a handful of people milling around Kaough’s yard.

Voices can be heard urging guests to stay on the porch.

The video then shows two officers spraying people in the yard, who were watching the events. A cloud of spray comes in to the camera’s view from the left, showing a female city officer spraying individuals on the porch.

The individuals in the video then retreat into the house coughing and gagging.

“I’m not sure what the law is, whether they can do that or not, but I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, Kaough said. “After the female cop sprayed us, they told us to go back inside the house, but when she sprayed, it went throughout the house. We couldn’t go back into the house.”

Kaough describes the scene as “complete turmoil.” He said his party was calm.

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He could see people causing problems elsewhere on the street, but he said he had been careful to keep guests on his property in line.

“There was a lot of chaos,” Kaough said. “After the initial spray, people were running into my backyard. They were crying. EMS was there treating students. Down the street, there was a whole mob. We weren’t doing anything and we got sprayed while on our own porch. On our side of the street, things were pretty peaceful.”

Kaough’s video later shows him approaching the officer who sprayed him.

He tells the officer, “What you did was illegal.” The officer responds by threatening to spray him again.

Kaough was later sprayed again by a different officer and given a ticket for resisting a peace officer.

Barker, responding in general to individuals being sprayed, as well as spray getting into their homes, said they could’ve retreated to backyards.

“People could’ve gone out their back doors,” he said. “We didn’t care if people went elsewhere. We just didn’t want people out in the front antagonizing the officers, so they were directed to go inside. They were more than welcome to go out the back and do whatever.”

Barker said the people who were sprayed were offered medical treatment.

“Anybody that was sprayed with the pepper spray was treated by EMS and given wipes and given different things to clean out their eyes,” he said. “One of my officers handed one individual who received pepper spray a bottle of water to wash his eyes out. He thanked the officer.”

Kaough said he wasn’t opposed to the police presence, or the use of the mobile field force; for those who were causing problems.

“I feel like they did the right thing in that they had to have the riot gear and they had to have the dogs,” he said. But Kaough said he didn’t feel like officers gave people enough warning before using force and pepper spray.

“They didn’t tell us anything,” he said. “They just let people get drunk and then expected everyone to leave peacefully. It just didn’t make any sense to me.”

Inman said he’s viewed many of the videos on Youtube, and says he hasn’t seen officers doing anything wrong.

“I don’t know how you could view the videos that are online and not see that (all involved) officers exercised a great deal of discretion with the public,” Inman said.

Kaough doesn’t agree and said he will hire an attorney to address the issue.

“I’m just a college student here,” he said. “I’m just trying to go to school and not get into any trouble. I don’t think this was right. I don’t want to cause any trouble, but at the same time, I have to stand up for what I believe is right...I’m done with partying here.”

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Tough words

Inman, Barker and WIU President Dr. Al Goldfarb have had tough words for the individuals who threatened the safety of officers and citizens on Saturday.

“The university supports the law enforcement agencies in their attempt to ensure the safety of our students and our community,” Goldfarb wrote. “Those students who were arrested will also face disciplinary action from the university. It is sad that those individuals have such little respect for themselves, their community and their university, and that they, along with visitors to this community, can tarnish Western Illinois University’s reputation.”

Of the 89 arrests made on Saturday, only 38 of those individuals were WIU students.

Inman said he believes Goldfarb can be credited with keeping students out of trouble.

“There was every effort made by both the university and the city to dissuade folks from being involved in this event,”?Inman said. “I applaud Dr. Goldfarb and his staff for taking a very pro-active approach for making it known that this is not something they wanted their students to be involved in.”

Barker said a big problem is that individuals who don’t live in Macomb don’t care what problems they bring to the community.

“They have no ownership in that neighborhood,” Barker said. “It’s not their block. We have people coming from Florida to attend this party. Those people have no ownership in this community and they just don’t care. It really gives Western a bad reputation. It gives Macomb a bad reputation to allow those individuals to act that way.”

Next year

Inman stops short of saying that the city will prevent the party of occurring in the future.

“We have to be careful how we tread,” Inman said. “There are certain rights that we have to be mindful of and that’s been our focus from the very beginning. It’s not about keeping people from exercising their rights, it’s about giving guidance on how they can avoid coming into contact with the law.”

Inman said officials will view video taken of the event at a meeting next week to begin developing a plan to keep similar events safe in the future.

“Anytime an event were to draw 3,000 or 4,000 people to Macomb, there would be an expectation that police services would be called upon, whether it’s a passive group of people gathered, or not,” Inman said.

Barker says his department will work with the city and university closely to uphold public safety.

“As long as you commit city ordinance violations or criminal violations, we’re not going to allow you to party,” Barker said. “Just don’t allow underage drinking and control your party...Each year, it looks like it’s beginning to escalate. Each year, we’re getting more and more participants at the party. When you have a crowd like that in that small of an area, it’s very hard to control...I think every university has its challenges. This is only the third year for this and we’re hoping it doesn’t become a tradition.”